The US army memo about the killing of an Iraqi woman in a taxi at a checkpoint in Iraq is terse and matter-of-fact.The incident occurred in the eastern Iraqi town of Baquba in February last year, when a taxi carrying a woman and her two children went through the checkpoint. US troops opened fire, killing the woman, who died from internal bleeding, and wounding her two children."There is evidence to suggest that the warning cones and printed checkpoint signs had not yet been displayed in front of the checkpoint, which may be the reason why the driver of the taxi did not believe he was required to stop," says the memo, which recommended a compensation payment of $7,500 (£3,798).... http://www.guardian.co.uk

President Bush's aides are lying about White House e-mails sent on a Republican account that might have been lost, a powerful Senate chairman suggested Thursday, vowing to subpoena those documents if the administration fails to cough them up. "They say they have not been preserved. I don't believe that!" Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy shouted from the Senate floor. "You can't erase e-mails, not today. They've gone through too many servers," said Leahy, D-Vt. "Those e-mails are there; they just don't want to produce them. We'll subpoena them if necessary." With that, Leahy headed to his committee, which approved — but did not issue — new subpoenas to compel the administration to produce documents and testimony about the firings of eight federal prosecutors over the winter. ...http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/04/12/politics/main2676223.shtml?source=RSSattr=U.S._2676223

In September 2005, three officials of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and a handful of prominent shareholders gathered in Manhattan for an unpublicized meeting. The investors renewed their call for the world's biggest retailer to name a ``special committee of independent directors'' to investigate the company's workplace policies amid a rising tide of employee lawsuits. Wal-Mart deflected the request. Such a panel might ``get the issues wrong,'' said director Roland Hernandez, according to a colleague's deposition later introduced in court. Now, some of those same investors -- pension funds in New York, Illinois and Connecticut plus London-based F&C Asset Management Plc -- are demanding a shareholder vote to force Wal- Mart to review its policies. The reasons quiet diplomacy ended can be found in a string of letters exchanged before and after the 2005 meeting. The details, emerging for the first time, show how the shareholders pressured Wal-Mart -- and were rebuffed....http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=a0uoTK8cd0dE&refer=exclusive

With the Duke University lacrosse sexual assault case finally collapsed, public scrutiny moves from the three former players charged and onto a district attorney accused of mishandling the investigation for his own political gain. In a blistering assessment of the case, North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper on Wednesday dropped all charges against the players, all but ensuring that only one person in the whole scandal will be held to account: Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong. "This case shows the enormous consequences of overreaching by a prosecutor," Cooper said, adding that the three athletes were railroaded by a district attorney who ignored increasingly flimsy evidence in a "tragic rush to accuse." The three white Duke lacrosse players; David Evans, Reade Seligmann and Collin Finnerty, were accused of sexually assaulting a black stripper at a party. They were indicted last spring on charges of rape, kidnapping and sexual offense after ...http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/04/12/national/main2675230.shtml?source=RSSattr=U.S._2675230

World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz acknowledged Thursday that he erred in helping a close female friend get transferred to a high-paying job. "I made a mistake for which I am sorry," he said.The growing controversy has overshadowed major development meetings this weekend and is raising fresh questions about whether Wolfowitz will stay on the job.At issue is the generous compensation of a bank employee, Shaha Riza, who has dated Wolfowitz. She was given an assignment at the State Department in September 2005, shortly after he became bank president."In hindsight I wish I had trusted my original instincts and kept myself out of the negotiations," Wolfowitz said....http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,265562,00.html

Human error was largely to blame for last month's explosions in the Mozambique capital which killed more than 100 people, a report says. The commission of inquiry into the Maputo explosions blames poor storage conditions at the arsenal, a lack of inspection and high temperatures. The president has ordered all obsolete weapons to be destroyed and arms depots to be moved to remote areas. The government says it will spend some $12m rebuilding damaged homes. Several hundred people were injured in the blasts, as the initial blasts caused further detonations. It was the second time in less than two months that aging explosives in the arsenal have detonated. Twenty tonnes of obsolete equipment left over from the long civil war had been awaiting destruction. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6549639.stm